Snape/Lily
Chapter 1

Harry, Ron, and Hermione couldn't have been more sure that things could get any worse at Hogwarts. With Umbridge completely taking over the school and the stress of their O. approaching, each couldn't wait for the end of that term. Plus, with the ministry so keen on denouncing the fact that Voldemort had indeed returned and everyone following the Daily Prophet, Harry felt very much alone in the intricate puzzle of his past.

The three friends were making their way to charms class. Ron was currently begging with Hermione to help him make a last minute try at practicing a spell, which had been the homework Ron had completely ignored.

"No, Ron, you cannot rely on me to help you with everything!" Hermione cried. "If you want to pass your O. , you're going to have to at least try!"

"I have been trying, Hermione." Ron complained. "A bloke can't do everything."

Harry tried to restrain a smile as his two best friends continued bickering, until finally, as Harry had predicted, Herminone agreed to help Ron after class with their new homework, only if he would promise to work harder from then on.

As Hermione was demonstrating the proper wand movements, Harry noticed someone coming quickly from down the hallway. Harry noticed right away it was a she, though her head was ducked into the contents of a book. Her ebony hair tousled over, matching the ebony of her Hogwarts robe. She was stiff and tight while she moved, and appeared to be in a great hurry. She cut right through the three of them without a moment's glance, interrupting Ron, who had almost achieved the spell.

"Oi, watch where you're going!" Ron called out.

Hermione nudged him in the arm. He glanced at her with a look of confusion and annoyance. Harry happened to look down at the ground and noticed the strange girl had dropped a piece of parchment. Curiously he retrieved it and glanced at two initials written hurriedly in blotted ink- E. P.

"Hey, I think you dropped this!"

The girl turned around, and Harry's eyes met those of intense, piercing black. A chill crept up Harry's spine, though he did not know why, only that he knew he had seen those eyes somewhere before.

She walked directly to where Harry held out the piece of parchment. He caught a glimpse at her robe, and noticed she was from Slytherin house. Giving him a look of suspicion, she seized the parchment without saying a word, and, turning back to her book, briskly walked off down the hallway, her robe billowing a bit behind her.

"Well, that was odd, I wonder what she was doing wandering off alone. Shouldn't she be in class?" Ron commented, having forgotten about the spell.

"So should we." Hermione persisted. "Let's go."

Harry followed his friends down to charms class, but all the while he couldn't stop thinking about where he had seen those eyes, or why they had made him so uncomfortable. And what had those initials stood for?

Lily Snape wandered with her book through the hallways of Hogwarts in the direction of the Slytherin dungeons. Though late as she was to class, her father had required something very important and had needed it immediately. Of course she did not know what it was for, though she suspected for some potion. Her father never told her anything.

In fact, Severus Snape rarely ever told her anything those days. He saw her in class and when she returned to her house, and occassionally during the holidays, but he was never the kind of father she wanted. He was like an iron safe, vulnerable to no one and opened by no one.

But somewhere deep down, she knew her father loved her. And no matter how much she could say she hated him, Lily did love him back. It was a complicated bond, but somehow it all worked out in the end. Had Lily realized she had just met the famous Harry Potter in the hallway, she might have looked closer, maybe even have said something. Of course she had known he was at Hogwarts, and that he claimed you-know-who was back, but being a year younger and in Slytherin, she rarely ever saw him.

The dungeons were colder than usual as Lily hurried down to her father's potions room. When she knocked on the door, she could hear sounds of scraping and bottles being moved on the table.

"Enter." Snape called out in his usual mundane voice.

"I brought what you wanted, dad." Lily sighed, opening her backpack and dropping the small bundle of ingredients onto the table.

Snape lifted the bag, looked inside, then nodded his approval and set them beside him, turning back to the potion he was stirring, which had faint whisps of green steam coming off it. "Thank you, Lily. Now off to class- we don't want too much time spent being absent."

"What are you doing?" Lily spoke up, watching as Snape poured a nasty looking liquid into the already bubbling cauldron.

"Not now, Lily, you are excused."

"But I just want to know what-"

"I said not now, Lily!"

Lily scowled at the potions master, but did not step away from the cauldron just yet. Snape retrieved a jar from the bag Lily had brought, opened it, and sprinkled in a powdery substance, which turned the green steam into a light blue.

"Is this what you do all day?"

Snape turned around and gave his daughter an exasperated look. "If you didn't catch the other thousand times I told you, then listen closely, get to class! You can ask me questions later."

"And then you'll tell me to go away again like you always do!" Lily cried angrily. "Fine, I'll get to class." And with that, she stomped out of the room.

Snape felt a twinge of guilt as the room became echoy quiet except for the sound of his bubbling potion. He hated making his daughter upset, for he really did love her, but she looked so much like him, and every time she asked of the things he was doing, he remembered what Lord Voldemort had been planning. He wasn't sure even Dumbledore could wriggle him out of this delimma, but Dumbledore was the only one he could rely on. Refusing to think about these things, Snape continued to create his potion.

Lily stompped angrily all the way to her class, which she was dreadfully late for, but thankfully did not recieve detention on account of her father's need as an excuse. She picked a desk completely empty and opened her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. Had she realized what she would have to face later that year, she might've paid better attention.